


Yogurtopia For 2

by corikane



Series: Teenage Bounty Hunters - series 1 [8]
Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family Drama, Rumors, Teenage Drama, yogurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26374264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corikane/pseuds/corikane
Summary: April meets Sterling and Blair at Yogurtopia. She tells Sterling about the rumor her father is spreading.
Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley
Series: Teenage Bounty Hunters - series 1 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916662
Comments: 8
Kudos: 173





	1. Chapter 1

"What else did April say?" Blair asked as they entered Yogurtopia at a quarter to two. Sterling had been bouncing around the house with nervous energy until Blair finally agreed to come here early. It had been the first time since her kidnapping that Sterling was actually eager to leave the house and Blair couldn't very well shut that glimpse of her old self down.

"Nothing, really." It was a lie, Blair could tell by the way Sterling's voice got unnaturally high.

"Sterling!"

"Okay, just that she missed me too after I wrote I missed her. And then she didn't write anything back, probably because her dad was around, I don't know."

"You two are so into each other."

"No, no, no. You can't say that, you're not supposed to say that. April and I are friends and, I swear if you as much as insinuate anything else while she's here--"

"Relax, Sterl, I can be as discreet as... something that is very discreet. I'm not sure what that could be but I can be discreet."

Sterling looked at her, obviously not believing a word she said.

"I'll be discreet for you, I promise."

"Hm, all right. If you can't be you can just join Bowser in his office. He's in his office, right? Hey, Miss Cathy," she greeted the older woman who was just coming around the corner from somewhere in the back.

"Oh, I didn't hear you girls. How's everything?"

"Oh, you know. Nothing's as much fun as working here," Blair said. "How's your family?"

"Everybody's getting on my nerves as usual. I'm lucky to have this place to escape."

Blair nodded in understanding.

"It's quiet for a Sunday. No customers? Like a very small girl around our age, really pretty like with kind of reddish brown-blonde hair?"

Miss Cathy looked from Sterling to Blair, seemingly unsure whether to even answer.

"Don't mind, Sterl. She's meeting her... a friend here."

"I haven't seen anyone that fits your description but then I don't pay any close attention to people."

Sterling took a deep breath. "That's okay, she'll probably be here--"

"Is that her car?" Blair asked after turning around.

"Where?" Sterling's head whipped around.

Blair couldn't hold her laughter, she'd totally got Sterling. "Relax, we're early," she told her with a pat on her arm.

"You're mean."

"Is she driving anyway? I've only ever seen her getting in and out of Hannah B's car."

"She's driving. But they car-pool to school, it's better for the environment," Sterl argued.

"If you say so. Miss Cathy, can I have some peach swirl with extra gummy bears?"

"You can have anything you like, Blair, if you pay for it."

"Hm, okay. You're way more business-oriented than Bowser, Miss Cathy. I admire that."

"He just can't say no to y'all." Before she got busy with Blairs order, she knocked on the office door behind her.

A muffled "yes?" had her open the door.

"The girls are here," Miss Cathy told him.

Blair stood where Bowser could see her and she waved.

"Both of you?" he asked as he got up from behind his desk and came over. He smiled brightly when he saw Sterling. She smiled back at him.

"My, is it good to see you about, Sterling." He came over to her and enveloped her in a bear hug.

Blair had to blink away the onslaught of tears, they hadn't seen each other since that night. She caught Sterling rubbing at her eyes.

"That'll be 3,75," Miss Cathy said as she put Blair's order on the counter.

"You're charging them?" Bowser asked.

"You handed over the business dealings to me, capt'n. And I'm charging everyone, even my own grandkids. Except for Travis, he's my favorite."

"You have a favorite grandkid?" Blair asked as she pulled a fiver from her wallet.

"He's everybody's favorite, even all the other grandkids like him more than anyone else. He'll probably become President one day, or something even better." Her look darkened for a moment, probably thinking about that guy who was besmirching the greatest honor of this country as they stood there. She took Blair's five dollars and gave her a dollar change.

"Thank you, Miss Cathy."

Bowser had been talking to Sterling in low tones while Blair had talked to Miss Cathy. They both looked misty-eyed now. Bowser patted Sterling on the shoulder.

"Any new jobs, Bowsie?"

"Not for you, Blair. You know that your parents put me on notice about our work."

"I'm working on them. I've almost got them as far as to admit that they enjoyed all the times we were out of the house back when." Blair picked the gummy bears out of her yogurt and popped them one by one into her mouth.

"We're meeting a friend here, she's--"

"Late," Blair chimed up and gestured outside where a blue Toyota Camry just stopped next to their Volt.

Sterling looked outside, then a smile spread over her whole face as April exited her car. Blair quickly put some yogurt into her mouth before she could start teasing Sterl again.

They were all watching April as she walked through the door and she stopped upon noticing. "Hello," she said, nestling at her hair that was perfectly pulled back and tied into a ponytail.

"Hey, April," Blair said when it became clear to her that Sterling wasn't really able to speak. She seemed flustered. "You haven't met Bowser, have you?"

"Well, Sterling told me so much about you that I almost feel I have. Hello, April Stevens." She came over and held her hand out to Bowser.

"It's nice to meet you," Bowser said, shaking April's hand. "Stevens?" His eyes went round in recognition and he looked at Blair.

"Yep," Blair said.

"I think you arrested my dad that one time," April said knowingly.

"Uh, I guess I did. We did."

"I know about that, no hard feelings."

"Really?" Blair asked surprised.

"You did the right thing. I'm... I'm the one who's ashamed that it was necessary," April said, color rising in her cheeks.

Blair somehow doubted that it was shame, though. From the way April set her jaw and the hardness that came into her eyes, she seemed more angry. Surprisingly enough, not at any of them.

"Huh, that's a first," Blair said.

"Hey, Sterling."

"Hi," Sterling gave back with a goofy look on her face. She checked herself when she noticed that she was staring and the whole operation became positively awkward. "Do you like some yogurt? It's really good."

"Ehm, I'm not really into... frozen yogurt," she said with an apologetic look at Bowser.

"That's okay, nobody seems to be these days. Look around," Bowser gave back. "Well, I still got work to do. Should get back to it."

Bowser went back into his office.

Blair finished her yogurt and got another one because why not? Miss Cathy went back to whatever she was doing in the back, trusting that either Blair or Sterling would take care of any potential customers. Blair didn't mind, she refilled her yogurt with gummy bears the moment Miss Cathy rounded the corner.

"I saw that!" Miss Cathy called back.

"I'll put a dollar into the till," Blair gave back. She searched her pockets for change but didn't find any. "Sterling, do you have a dollar?"

"Sorry, left my wallet at home."

April pulled out her wallet and handed Blair a dollar. "Here you go."

"I'll give it back tomorrow," Blair promised.

"It's okay," April said.

"Tomorrow," Blair insisted. The awkwardness of the following moment was almost painful. "Why don't I leave you two? I wanted to see what Bowser was up to these days, anyway."

"You don't have to leave," April said.

By the look on Sterling's face that wasn't true. Blair totally needed to leave.

"Bowser is just helpless without me," she said and then rushed over behind the condiments bar for a quick stop at the till and another for more gummy bears.


	2. Chapter 2

When Blair disappeared into Bowser's office, Sterling's gaze roamed around the room before being inevitably drawn to April who seemed just as awkward as herself. They smiled at each other.

"Is a hug okay?" Sterling asked shyly.

"Yes, of course."

Sterling tried to reign her feelings in but touching April was seriously exhilarating. And the hug lasted longer than it was probably common between friends.

"You're shaking," April said at her neck.

Sterling pulled back. "I do that these days. When I'm out of the house."

"How are you holding up?" April asked.

"It's all right, mostly. Wanna sit?" She gestured to the table in the corner and they went over and sat on the stools. "Blair helps. We went for a walk on Thursday, just up and down the street with Chloe, greeting neighbors. Then we went for a drive on Friday, without getting out of the car, just around the neighborhood. Yesterday we went to the park, today we're here. Exciting, I know."

"Don't do that," April said. "Don't mock yourself. You've been through an ordeal and your body and your mind need to get used to things again, they need to regain the trust of feeling safe."

"Yeah. Tomorrow comes the big one, though, back to school."

April nodded. "We have a couple of classes together. If Blair's busy with her own schedule, I'll be glad to... you know, walk you to class."

Sterling felt a smile tug at her lips. "That's sweet. I don't know if Blair will let you. She'll probably not stray from my site."

"Understandable. Just in case, you know, I'm around."

They both had their hands lying on the table, April was nervously wringing them. Sterling felt like reaching out and holding onto April's hands but she didn't dare to. She had to drag her eyes from those hands and refocus them on April's. But those eyes... she felt week in the knees looking into them. It was a good thing they were sitting down.

Sterling dumbly nodded her head, she didn't know what they had been talking about before. And she didn't really care because they were still looking into each other's eyes. Then her gaze dropped to April's lips and she felt the need to moisten her own. If she would just lean forward a little, that would be okay, right?

At that moment, the door opened.

Sterling bolted upright as did April. Had they leaned toward each other? How had that happened?

The person who'd entered looked around at them.

"Sterling, how are you?" It was Yolanda.

"Hey, Yolanda. Yeah, I'm... better."

Yolanda came over and hugged her. "I missed you around here. Bowser told me what all happened, I'm so sorry, honey."

"It's okay," Sterling said non-committal. She wasn't sure that Bowser had really told her everything and she didn't want to get into it. "This is April... a friend."

"Oh, hi. Good to meet you, April."

"Nice to meet you, Ms..."

"Oh, call me Yolanda, everybody does. Where's that crazy sister of yours? She with Bowser?"

"You know it," Sterling said.

"Well, I'm gonna see if he wants to work today. Got some skips." She held up a folder.

"He'll be anxious to. Blair has been in there with him for at least 10 minutes."

"I'm gonna rescue him then. It was nice meeting you," she said to April before she went behind the bar and into Bowser's office.

"Wow, she's... very energetic."

"It's okay, I know she's hot. I noticed." They snickered.

"I've never got to say things like that aloud," April said. "But yeah, she's very attractive."

"She and Bowser have kind of a thing, even though she's officially seeing Terrence, the bounty hunter guy with those youtube videos?"

"Never heard of him."

"Anyway, Bowser was married to Yolanda's sister but they also had a thing before that. I don't know, it's complicated."

"Like with us," April said.

"No, straight-people-complicated." Sterling grinned.

April snorted. "It's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you. I missed you."

April nodded, then looked around the room. "I needed to talk to you. It's important."

"Okay, let's hear it."

"I don't want to put extra stress on you, you know. Maybe Blair should be here too?"

"I'm not broken, April. I can handle things."

April nodded some more. She still wrung her hands and this time, Sterling did reach out. She held onto both of April's hands.

"We were at the Club yesterday, my parents and I. It was my dad's idea, I wasn't really thrilled."

"I can imagine."

"Yeah. Anyway, my dad was unusually hyped about it, so was my mom. I didn't really know why they would be but, after all, dad was cleared of all charges. It was early and there weren't many people around when we arrived so dad and I went golfing, mom stayed at the house. After nine holes, dad wanted to go back so we did."

April took a deep breath. "It was really... embarrassing but my mom was already talking to some people. The Holmeses were there, without Ezekiel, and the Burtons, also without Hannah B. A few others. They all came up to my dad, patted him on the back like some sort of hero because he was in jail - innocent."

Sterling was about to say something.

"I know he's not, and so did everyone there, I presume. But they still treated him like a long-lost friend or something. Dad loved it, mom did too. I hardly knew where to look, it was disgusting."

"I'm so sorry," Sterling said. She rubbed her thumb over April's, their hands caressed each other while they talked.

"Don't be. I never would have thought my dad would behave like that. I guess I'm not really surprised at my mom but... I guess I always thought so highly of my dad that I didn't really see the real him. Or he didn't let me see the real him, he still kind of doesn't."

Sterling merely nodded, she could absolutely relate to parents not being honest.

"Anyway, we had lunch with the Holmeses and the Burtons. They started talking about... you."

"Me?"

"Yes, your hunting accident. Dad got all... thoughtful and theoretical. He... started wondering who might have shot you. Someone, I think Mr. Holmes, said that nobody knew if you were shot. And it went from there. My dad..." April took a deep breath. "He insinuated that your dad might have shot you, or barely missed you. It sounded like he was saying that he may have done it on purpose."

Sterling didn't know what to say. For a while, she just stared at April, her hands had stilled but were still holding onto April's.

"He...," she started but couldn't really form a complete sentence.

"Mrs. Burton said that your family may have to end your membership at the Club because your dad's unemployed and dad said that losing a job is as stressful as losing a relative. He was laying it on pretty thick but Mr. Holmes and Mr. Burton seemed... well, they didn't say much but they probably thought my dad had a point. I wanted to say something, I tried to argue that you were probably not hurt because you were home this whole time but my dad turned it around like your dad missed you and you were now traumatized, or something. I didn't know what to do."

"That's... wow. Why would he... oh, right. Because we arrested him."

"I think so, yes. On the way home, dad told me not to say anything about all this at school. At first, I thought he was maybe ashamed of what he'd said, that he's changed his mind. But the way he phrased it, reminding me that I don't like you and that your parents could get into trouble. Sterling, I think he was trying to manipulate me into gossiping at school."

"Are you sure? Maybe he really didn't want it to get further than the Holmeses and the Burtons."

"I'm pretty sure. I'm actually sure he's done it before with... Ben Thomas, in 6th grade?" April lowered her eyes to the table, she seemed ashamed.

"Ben... oh, there was... the thing with his dad and the nanny? That was..."

"I thought I'd overheard something I wasn't supposed to. It was juicy gossip and Ben, well, he was kind of creepy. But when the whole thing got out Mrs. Thomas insisted on moving and... my dad got that promotion. Mr. Thomas and he were working at the same place."

"Holy... moly. You think... That's disgusting. And he's trying to do the same thing with my family now."

"I think so. Of course, he doesn't know that we're... friends and that I know that you were never in a hunting accident. But he wants me to spread rumors at school. Of course, I won't do that. If he asks, I can always say that he'd asked me to not spread any rumors and that'll be it. I just, I need you to know because I don't think it'll end here."

Sterling wasn't sure what to say. "I can't believe he would go to that length. I mean I believe you but... what the actual fuck!"

"I know. I'm sorry, Sterl. I don't know what else to say--"

"You don't need to say anything, April. This isn't your fault, none of it is. You're here to warn me, us."

"I was thinking, if things were different between us, if they were still the way they used to... my dad knows me well. I would have done it."

"I don't believe that."

"I did it before," April argued.

"You were a kid then, you didn't know any better. But you know better now, you would never do that to anybody, telling lies that might break up a family."

"I'm glad you know that because I'm not so sure. After all, I pressured you into giving up Fellowship Leader."

"That was just between us, you didn't even tell Ellen and I don't think you would have. I mean it was unfortunate that Hannah B told her mom but..." Sterling shrugged.

"You think I'm far better than I am but..." She raised her hand to stop Sterling from protesting. "I'm glad you do."

"I think I see you as you are and you need to have a little more faith in yourself," Sterling argued.

April smiled and for a moment it was like they hadn't talked about all these important and dark things. It was like they could just get lost in each other again. Sterling felt like she was losing herself right now.

But then the door to Bowser's office opened and Blair stuck her head out. "Hey, you two?"

"What is it Blair?" Sterling asked, rolling her eyes and seeing April hide her laugh behind her hand. The other was still holding hers though.

"I'm kind of peckish. You guys feel like Wendy's or something?"

April couldn't hide her laughter any longer, neither could Sterling. "Where is she putting it all?" April asked.

"I don't know, believe me."

"You guys are hilarious. But if you don't want to, I can go alone."

"No, wait. Come over here," Sterling said and waved Blair over. "Do you even have money. A minute ago, you didn't have a dollar."

"I've got a fifty, I just didn't want to rob Miss Cathy of all her change."

"You want to come with us?" Sterling asked April as their hands slipped out of each other's grasp as Blair stepped up to the table. Sterling lay an arm around her sister's shoulders.

April shook her head. "I just had lunch."

"You can still come."

"I need to be home soon. My parents are going out tonight and they wanted me home before they leave."

"Date night?" Blair asked.

"Not really, a birthday party of one of dad's partners. But with all that happened, they're excited."

April looked at Sterling meaningfully. Sterling understood that this might be another opportunity for Mr. Stevens to stir up trouble.

She sighed. "Thank you for coming and telling me... all that."

"Of course. I hope it helps."

"We'll handle it," Sterling said with more confidence than she felt.

Blair looked from one of them to the other.

"I'll tell you while you eat," Sterling told her.

They slipped from the stools and then hesitated a moment before hugging. It was a long hug, a tight hug. Sterling felt like she didn't want to let go, having April in her arms just felt too right.

It had to happen, of course. April stepped out of her arms. "Maybe we can talk later?"

"I'll text you."

"Okay. Bye, Blair."

"Bye, April."

Sterling waved as April walked out the door.

"You two need to get back together, I'm not kidding. It's painful to see you look at each other with all that yearning." Blair beat her chest, clawed at her shirt, and moaned lustily.

"Stop that." Sterling grabbed Blair's wrists. "That's not funny."

"Who's laughing? I really want you to be with her. She wants it too. Fuck John Stevens, he's an ass anyway. He shouldn't be the one to keep you apart, nobody should."

"You don't even know how much of an ass he is," Sterling said.

"Were you talking about him?"

Sterling nodded meaningfully. "Let's say bye to Bowser and skip. I feel a little peckish myself after this talk."

And that's what they did.


End file.
